Camshaft Position Sensor Location

[Oka]

Hello folks, hope you all are keeping safe enough in this COVID times.

I must apologize for not have reported the outcome of my long dilemma. When I was about to continue my trouble shooting on the car, my back started aching and had to rest. Then, I decided to take the car to the mechanic. He is trusted and happen to be the only Volvo specialist in Anchorage.

From my posts you'll see I had been stalled on the road, and managed to get home a few times. Hesitation was a common place, then stalling and then driving to just stalled to be towed home twice. To take it to the mechanic, I had to manage it up the bed of the tow truck; was a struggle. He had to hook it up to get it in all the way. At the mechanic, with the bed at an angle, I managed to use gravity to drive it down and manage it to the nearest space, for the mechanic. All that is to tell you how how undriveable the car was. The mechanic mentioned he'll get to it on Thursday. He called me the next day to tell me there is nothing wrong with my car. Imagine that! I was dumbfounded. Since he said he test drove it, I asked him to do more test drives. On Monday, he said the car is driving. I went and picked it up and just paid him for checking the car in his shop. It's been months now, no problem. So, I don't know what else to say. The only conclusion I have is, he may have found a simple error, fixed it and don't want to tell me; he has to make a living. So folks, I don't have an answer (solution) to the issues I had.

Thanks and stay safe!

[FORCEDSUCCESS]

For what it is worth, I had same issues on a 05 XC90 2.5T, it would run and start fine, then strand me on the road at random times after driving 20 miles. I finally used a simple OBD plug in diagnostic which was using phone app to monitor in real time the fuel pressure. Sure enough, the fuel pressure would drop from the normal 45lb. range down to 10-15lbs. just before engine died. If I let is sit for 20 minutes, it would restart and repeat the same pattern.

Just so you know, I changed fuel pump twice, fuel filter and fuel pressure sensor and it solved nothing. On the second fuel pump which I thought the first was defective, and what I found was black particles blocking the bottom pick up screen? After replacing the filter, and the second fuel pump, I pulled it up and it too had a clogged screen on bottom. Obviously something in the tank indicates rust particles and where they came from, I don't know, perhaps some fuel stations do not change their filters often enough, and then I discovered some stations remove their filters to save money allowing rust particles to be pumped into vehicles when fueled.

Who know for sure, but there was no doubt I had foreign material in tank, and it appeared to be metal as magnet proved it. Tank is plastic, so it makes no sense. I did not want to drop whole tank, not an easy job, and given it is a two sided tank, draining from one side would not impact the other side on drivers side. So here is the thing I discovered. Yes, there was metal rust like black material in tank which was being drawn up to screen in fuel pump restricting fuel flow. When you let is sit, and then it would start fine and drive fine for X amount of miles and repeat stall over and over again. So I cleaned fuel pump screen again, then attached a super strong magnet locating it under the passenger side tank below fuel pump location onto the fuel tank steel strap which thankfully was under fuel pump location. Low and behold, it has been two years and 40K miles and never had this drop in fuel pressure again.

OK, I know, sounds crazy, but I was at wits end. Somehow these metal particle got into tank, crazy as it sounds with a plastic tank, but I didn't do anything else and problem vanished. Using common sense, I figured since fuel pump screen was getting clogged up, as it was with first pump I put in, then second, i suspect first pump, the original was fine, should have just cleaned screen and reinstalled, but given the hassle to remove, figured I would just change it. So for those with these mystery stalling situations, and then fine after sitting or taking to garage and mechanic can't find any issues, this may be worth considering. It sure has solved my problem, too bad it didn't solve all the other problems I have had over the years. I had 170K when problem started, and nothing showed up in codes, other than fuel pressure sensor code, PEM code, fuel pressure issue, but changing all those did nothing.

Since so few post solutions on these forums after posting issues they have, thought I would add this to help those who face very erratic engine dying issues.